502 DE AUGMENTIS SCIENTIARUM 



quam cosmographica. Quarta, de Massis Materice communibus, 

 quas Collegia Major a vocamus (vulgo JSlementa dicuntur); 

 neque enim de igne, aere, aqua, terra, eorumque naturis, mo- 

 tibus, operibus, impressionibus, narrationes reperiuntur quas 

 corpus aliquod historiae justum constituant. Quinta et ultima, 

 de Collectionibus Materice ezquisitis, quae a nobis Collegia Minora, 

 yulgo Species, appellantur. 1 In hac autem postrema sola in- 

 dustria scriptorum enituit; ita tamen, ut potius luxuriata sit 

 in superfluis (iconibus animalium aut plantarum, et similibus 

 intumescens), quam solidis et diligentibus observationibus di- 

 tata, quae ubique in Historia Naturali subnecti debeant. At- 

 que, ut verbo dicam, omnis quam habemus Naturalis Historia, 

 tarn inquisitione sua quam congerie, nullo modo in ordine ad 

 eum quern diximus finem (condendae scilicet Philosophiae) 

 aptata est. Quare Historian! Inductivam desiderari pronunci- 

 amus. Atque de Naturali Historia hactenus. 



CAPUT IV. 



Partitio Histories Civilis in Ecclesiasticam, Literariam, et (quce 

 generis nomen retinet) Civilem: quodque Historia Literaria 

 desideretur. Ejus conficienda prcecepta. 



HISTORIAM Civilem in tres species recte dividi putamus : 

 primo, Sacram, sive Ecclesiasticam ; deinde earn quae generis 

 nomen retinet, Civilem ; postremo, Literarum et Artium. Or- 

 diemur autem ab ea specie, quam postremo posuimus ; quia 

 reliquae duae habentur, illam autem inter Desiderata referre 

 visum est. Ea est Historia Literarum. Atque certe historia 

 mundi, si hac parte fuerit destituta, non absimilis censeri possit 



1 It is to be observed that the " collegia majora," e. g. earth, are distinguished 

 from " species," such as a rose or a horse, although logically speaking each element 

 may be defined by genus and differentia, as really as any " species infima." In the 

 present day we speak habitually of " different species of earth," of " different kinds 

 of air," and so on, and it is therefore not easy for us to apprehend the notions implied 

 in the text, and in other passages of Bacon's writings, namely that the great elemen- 

 tary masses, air, water, &c., have no true specific character, and that they may in con- 

 sequence be placed in antithesis to the smaller and more subtly arranged portions of 

 matter, crystals, flowers, animals, &c., which possess a specific form and character. In 

 the first chapter of the third book we find the question suggested, why in rerum natura 

 there is not " tanta copia specificati quanta non specificati," that is, why bodies pos- 

 sessing a specific form are not found in so great abundance as those which have merely 

 a general elementary form. To the specific form were ascribed those properties of any 

 body which did not result, or could not be supposed to result, from the combination of 

 the primary qualities of the elements of which that body was composed ; and these 

 were commonly termed occult qualities. In these notions we see the origin of such 

 phrases as " specific virtues," specific action," and so on. 



